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The My Family Project Conchita Espinosa Academy Collection contains family reports and oral history interviews of family members by several students of the Conchita Espinosa Academy.

This collection contains drawings, sketches, photographs, research materials, clippings, audio-visual materials (CDs and audiocassette tapes), periodicals, ephemera, and other archival materials created and collected by the noted Miami and New York artist Naomi Fisher (1976-).

Natale Bongiovanni was a Field Captain with the U.S. Army. The Natale Bongiovanni Papers contains six notebooks in which Bongiovanni defines and provides context and etymology for every word of President Harry Truman's State of the Union Address to Congress on January 4, 1950.

The Natalia Aróstegui Bolognini Collection contains poems, articles, extracts and off-prints, and music scores by important early/mid 20th century Cuban composers. Music scores include autographed manuscript music scores by Gonzalo Roig, an important Cuban musician of the mid-twentieth century; autographed music scores by Ernesto Lecuona, one of the most important and internationally known Cuban musicians of the 20th century; and sheet music by Jorge Anckermann, Eusebio Delfín, Gisela Hernández González, José Marin Varona, Jorge Mauri, and Ernestina Lecuona, Ernesto Lecuona's sister.

This collection also contains manuscript poems by Dulce María Loynaz del Castillo, a renowned Cuban poet and the 1992 recipient of the Cervantes Award of Literature; and documentation about Dr. Gonzalo E. Aróstegui y del Castillo, Aróstegui's father.

The Natasha Mella Papers contain the personal papers of the Cuban exile intellectual Natasha Mella (1927-2014). The collection contains photographs and audio cassettes of radio programs, conferences, interviews, and other recordings relating to Mella's writings, primarily from her time in exile. There is also correspondence, clippings, and pamphlets which relate to Mella's research on Cuban politics and history as well as correspondence with fellow exiled Cubans. There are numerous speeches, handwritten notes both personal and for research, and essays and articles written by her on Cuban topics for various news and radio outlets, especially in Miami.

The Nathalie Marshall Papers consists of selections of personal writings, dream journals, notebooks, poetry and correspondence by the artist reflecting thirty years of her creative process.

The Nathaniel Hooper Collection contains one visitors' book from the Chateau Malet in France.

This collection currently contains advertisements, ephemera, pamphlets, scrapbooks, and graphic materials from National Airlines, mostly dating to the 1970s.

The collection contains scrapbooks, clippings, photographs, negatives, programs, audio reels, 8mm and Super 8 film, and theater ephemera related to the career of actress and singer Nattacha Amador.

The collection consists of two unbound binders containing course schedules and assignment sheets published by the NDEA Institute on International Communism and the Americas, held at the University of Miami from June 19 to July 29, 1966.

The Nicaragua collection documents the Nicaraguan diaspora living in Miami during the 1980s and the political and social conditions in Nicaragua from the 1979 Sandinista revolution onward until their loss of power in 1990.

Many of the materials falling into the latter category are from the United States in origin, such as anti-Soviet propaganda endorsing the anti-Sandinista "Contra" Freedom Fighters, pamphlets that describe the Sandinista government and Central America in general from an American perspective, and periodicals and reports about Nicaragua written to an American audience. The materials that document the Nicaraguan diaspora are mostly fliers, menus, calendars, brochures, and other genres that were from local Nicaraguan businesses, restaurants, clubs, and other organizations. Some of the materials transcend these two categories, as many that concern the political conditions are addressed to or produced by Nicaraguan exiles.

A large part of the collection consists of photocopies of news articles.

Writers that are especially represented by the collection include Ruben Dario, Esteban Duque-Estrada, and Luis Mejia Gonzalez. Associations and organizations that are especially represented include Alanzia Revolucionaria Democrática (ARDE), American Defense Foundation, American Defense Lobby. Asociación Nicaragüenses en el Exilio, Asociación Nicaragüense pro Derechos Humanos, Bloque Opositor del Sur (B.O.S.), Council for Interamerican Security, Fundación Ruben Dario, Nicaraguan American Solidarity (NICAS), Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters, Partido Conservador de Nicaragua, Partido Socialcristiano de Nicaragua en el Exilio, Resistencia Nicaragüense, and Unidad Nicaragüense Opositora (UNO). Materials from some of these were grouped together in a series titled "Associations."

Also of notice are brochures advertising tourism to Nicaragua during the Sandinista regime, and memorabilia such as a handmade Nicaraguan crest, Nicaraguan paper money from the Sandinista era, and a pin that says "If you like Cuba you'll love Nicaragua."

A collection of negatives of South Florida buildings and maps including Plymouth Church in Coconut Grove, the Everglades, Miami Beach hotels and Vizcaya Museum.

The collection contains architectural photographs, sketches, and designs documenting the work of Nicolás Arroyo and Gabriela Menéndez, active in Cuba from the 1940s to 1950s.

Bio:
Nicolás Arroyo Márquez (1917–2008) and Gabriela Menéndez Garcia-Beltran (1917–2008) were architects from Havana, Cuba, who are remembered as pioneers of modernist Cuban architecture of the 1940s and 1950s. Additionally, Arroyo, who was known as ‘Lin,’ served in the government of Fulgencio Batista as Minster of Public Works from 1952-1958, and was also the Ambassador to the United States in 1958 before Fidel Castro rose to power. Arroyo and Menéndez both obtained their degrees in architecture from the University of Havana in 1941; Eduardo Castellanos, cousin of Arroyo, stated that "The two were students who disputed the top positions of their class, because they both had outstanding intelligence and passion for the architecture'' (qtd. in Cancio Isla). Though rivalling each other in academic vigor, the pair fell in love and married in December 1942, staying together until they died just three days apart – Gabriela on July 10th 2008 and Nicolás on July 13th 2008 – leaving behind one son.

After their marriage in 1942, Arroyo and Menéndez formed their architectural firm, ‘Arroyo y Menéndez,’ described by Florencia Peñate Díaz as “una de las más prestigiosas de la República / one of the most prestigious of the Republic” (79), thus initiating the beginning of their irrevocable impact on the landscape of contemporary Cuba. As a team and as individuals, Arroyo and Menéndez’s legacies transcend merely the buildings they left behind. The couple both participated in the Technical Group of Contemporary Studies (Agrupación Técnica de Estudios Contemporáneos, ATEC), which eventually led to Cuba’s incorporation into the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM). The congress was founded in 1928 with the purpose of creating a space for the cross-fertilization of ideas pertaining to architecture as both an art form and a field of academic study; it disbanded in 1959. Victor Pérez Escolano relates, “In Cuba, the creation of the Technical Group of Contemporary Studies (Agrupación Técnica de Estudios Contemporáneos, ATEC) reflects how architects who had innovative ideas, but were looking for an alternative to the more severe avant-garde groupings, could gather” (88). According to the late architect Nicolás Quintana, who worked on an urban planning initiative created by Arroyo as a part of the Junta Nacional de Planificación (Board for National Planning), “Arroyo’s [and no doubt Menéndez’s] influence was decisive in putting Cuba on the CIAM map” (qtd. in Cancio Isla) from 1947 onwards when Arroyo attended the 6th CIAM congress held in England.

Despite leaving Cuba in 1959 when Fidel Castro came to power, the couple had already left their mark on the landscape. Most notably, in collaboration with Los Angeles architect Welton Becket, in 1958 the pair designed what was then known as the Havana Hilton Hotel, currently Habana Libre-Guitart. Towering over the business district, El Vedado, Havana, the “capital’s modernist emblem,” (321) as described by Giuliana Bruno in “Havana: Memoirs of Material Culture,” is the twenty-seven story that occupies an entire city block. At the time it was built, it was the tallest building in Latin America and the Caribbean and attracted flocks of celebrity guests. The building was designed and built under the guidance of Fulgencio Batista, as Peter Moruzzi, author of Havana Before Castro writes, “Batista considered the Habana Hilton among his proudest achievements, its huge blue-lit rooftop ‘Hilton’ name announcing to the world that the eminent Conrad Hilton had confidence in Cuba’s future – that the country was a safe place in which to invest – and that tourists could now find in Havana the modern comforts they expected in a top international resort” (qtd. in Perur). However, the hotel’s status as the unrivalled touristic site of modern Havana was not to last as Castro moved into the building and nationalized and renamed it in 1960. Bruno narrates, “The hotel still features in the lobby evidence of the passage of Fidel, who turned a touristic site into home while choosing a mobile home for a revolutionary symbol” (321). For three months, Continental Suite 2324 was his main headquarters and on January 19th1959 he gave his first press conference in the hotel’s ballroom.

In addition to the Havana Hilton Hotel, which was the last building designed in Cuba under the ‘Arroyo y Menéndez’ banner, the pair of architects left behind other notable buildings before departing the island for good. In 1954 Cuba’s first modernist church, named San Pablo, was completed; despite the fact that it is currently used as a warehouse, at the time the building was notable for its bell tower clad in concrete lattice work. In the same year building work began on the National Theater of Cuba, which was a Cubist concrete design; the structure, however, remained unfinished and did not open to the public until 1979. The 1955-1957 Sport’s Palace, or “Coliseo,” (Coliseo de la Cuidad Deportiva) is a circular arena designed to accommodate fifteen thousand spectators. Tony Perrottet describes the building as “A circular covered arena whose Jet Age design resembled a white flying saucer” (317). Also, though never built, the 1956 “Las Palmas” Presidential Palace was designed by José Luis Sert and his team alongside Menéndez for Batista’s “Plan Piloto.” The design warrants mention in Eduardo Baez’s Cruelty and Utopia: Cities and Landscapes of Latin America and is described as: “a dream-like presidential palace that would have been located between the fortresses of the Morro and the Cabaña. It commanded an impressive view of the whole city, a transparent and clear building that contrasted with the dark and crooked political power within” (141). The Presidential Palace, alongside Menéndez’s other important designs and the fact that during the time Arroyo was serving as Minister of Public Works she ran the company office, led Victor Deupi, co-curator of the recent exhibition in Miami, Cuban Architects at Home and in Exile, to say that her and other female architects’ work “stands on its own” (qtd. in Delson). Deupi’s comments are an important acknowledgment of the implicit male-dominated, and more so during this time certainly, sexist industry that female architects were operating in. Díaz, who has written what I am describing as feminist architectural histories of Cuba, notes that while Menéndez was referenced in Álbum de Cuba and the magazine, Arquitectura, this mention was because she was working alongside her husband (72).1 However, her work also evinces how these conditions, at least for the women in question, did not prevent them from producing valuable work.

After 1959 the couple left for Washington D.C., where they would stay for the rest of their lives, continuing to practice as architects for residential as well as commercial projects. In addition, Arroyo served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1971-1976. Aside from the visible legacies they left behind on landscapes in both the U.S. and Cuba, their work features prominently in Eduardo Luis Rodríguez’s 2000 The Havana Guide: Modern Architecture (1925-1965). More recently, the couple’s work is featured on a digital map of twentieth-century Cuban architecture made, in the words of the co-creator Josef Asteinza, “for documenting and conserving the historic fabric of the twentieth-century city.”

Notes

1. See also: Florencia Peñate Díaz, “Significado de la obra de las arquitectas cubanas Elana y Alicia Pujals Mederos / The significance of the work of Cuban architects Elena and Alicia Pujals Mederos.” Arquitectura y Urbanismo, vol. 37, no. 1, 2016, pp. 26-36.

Works Cited

Asteinza, Josef. “Mapping Cuba’s Twentieth-Century Architecture.” Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, 30 Nov. 2016, www.ascecuba.org/asce_proceedings/mapping-cubas-twentieth-century-architecture/. Accessed 2 Dec. 2019.

Baez, Eduardo. Cruelty and Utopia: Cities and Landscapes of Latin America. Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.

Bruno, Guiliana. “Havana: Memoirs of Material Culture.” Journal of Visual Culture, vol. 2, no. 3, 2003, pp. 303-324.

Delson, Susan. “Preview: Cuban Architects at Home and in Exile: The Modernist Generation.” Cubanartnews, 25 October 2016. Accessed Nov. 23 2019.

Díaz, Florencia Peñate. “La obra de las arquitectas cubanas de la República entre los años 40 y fines de los 50 del siglo XX / The work of female Cuban architects of the Republic between the 1940s and the late 50s of the 20th century.” Arquitectura y Urbanismo, vol. 33, no. 1, 2012, pp. 70-82.

Escolano, Victor Pérez. “A European Glance in the Mirror of Caribbean Modern Architecture.” Translated by Isabelle Kite. Docomomo, no. 33, 2005.

Isla, Wilfredo Cancio. “Falleció Nicolás Arroyo, pionero del modernismo cubano / Nicolás Arroyo, pioneer of Cuban modernism, died.” el Nuevo Herald, 25 July 2008, www.elnuevoherald.com/ultimas-noticias/article1934191.html. Accessed Nov. 18 2019.

Perrottet, Tony. Cuba Libre! Che, Fidel, and the Improbable Revolution That Changed the World. Blue Rider Press, 2019.

Perur, Srinath. “The Habana Libre hotel, pawn in Castro's battle against the US - a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 34.” The Guardian, 12 May 2015, www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/12/havana-habana-libre-castro-cuba-us-history-cities-50-buildings-day-34. Accessed Nov. 18 2019.

Nicolás Guillén Papers cover a particular time and place in the life of one of Cuba's finest 20th century poet.  They all deal with a trip he made to Uruguay in the late 1940s.  There are two manuscript writing styles.  The smaller tighter script is probably Guillén's.  The looser more open script matches his signature but could be someone else's.  It is possible that this second script is a dictation or copying of a Guillén work.  Materials include correspondence, clippings and photographs.  Some documents are signed by Guillén and others are not signed.

The Nicolás Quintana papers document the professional activities of Cuban-born architect Nicolás Quintana (1925-2011) in Cuba and while he lived in exile in Miami, Florida. The collection includes correspondence, photographs, architectural drawings, syllabi and other materials from classes taught by Quintana in Puerto Rico, promotional materials from Quintana's exhibits in Miami, materials from architectural conferences in which Quintana participated, and clippings and articles related to Quintana and his work. The collection encompasses the beginning of Quintana's professional career in Cuba as well as his extensive architectural and teaching work in exile, especially in Puerto Rico and Miami.

The papers document professional activities of Norberto Fuentes, a writer and journalist born in Havana who was a close friend of Fidel Castro, and consequently had privileged knowledge of the Cuban secret service during some of the most difficult years of the Cuban Revolution. After spending many years alongside Castro, Fuentes tried to escape the island, was detained and eventually released. He now lives in the United States. Bulk of the materials in this collection display the knowledge Fuentes has about Castro, especially it is evident in the manuscript of The Autobiography of Fidel Castro. The materials also have wealth of information on drug, money laundering, and robberies perpetrated by Cuban agents or coordinated by Cuba.

The papers consist of floppy disks with family photographs, with material about condemned, material about narcotráfico and revolutionary forces. The papers also include cassettes, VHS tapes, CD-ROMs, a manuscript of a book "En la boca del diablo," manuscripts and typescripts of anti-Castro essays, correspondence, notes for "Dulces Guerreros Cubanos," a manuscript and research notes for "El ultimo tren blindado," typescript and research for "Narcotráfico y Tareas Revolucionarias," a manuscript of "La Autobiografía de Fidel Castro," clippings and print-outs of Roberto Fuentes' official web page.

The papers of Norma Niurka (1942-2009), journalist, writer, and theater critic, include manuscripts, photographs, correspondence, clippings, video recordings, memorabilia, daybooks, and theater programs.  It also contains materials of Norma Niurka's aunt, the actress Miriam Acevedo.

The collection contains photographs, photograph albums, scrapbooks, clippings, theater programs, correspondence, and audiovisual materials including VHS and reel-to-reel.

The Norman Díaz Papers include typescripts, clippings, and correspondence regarding the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion and Cuban exile organizations of the early 1960s, including Consejo Revolucionario de Cuba, Brigade 2506, and Frente Revolucionario Cubano.